One moment, there had been no sign of life from his body. The next, Crag sat up with a growl of anger. Half his face was in ruins from the shotgun blast. He was missing an eye, and parts of his skull could be seen.
Grievous as his injuries seemed to be, they didn’t appear to slow him as he leapt to his feet and descended upon the unwary captain.
He pulled in the officer, still futilely trying to draw his own gun, and wrapped his massive hands around the man’s head.
There came the sickening crunch of bone, and then Crag threw him to the side, discarding him as if he were one of the dolls Kisaki had once played with as a small child. The captain flew into the side of the battered SUV, then slid off onto the ground where he lay unmoving.
As this happened, the second vehicle’s brakes screeched and it came to a halt not twenty feet away.
A door on the side flew open and two people, a man and a woman, came charging out. The man was holding something over his shoulder, a black device not quite as long as Stephen’s gun, but bulkier.
Please be a weapon, Kisaki thought as she raced forward and grabbed hold of her friend’s arm, dragging Stephen back as the man and woman approached them.
“Please tell me you’re getting all of this,” the woman said.
“Oh yeah. This is going to be the top headline for weeks.”
The man pointed the device toward Kisaki. “Not us!” she cried to him. “Fire it at Crag!”
“Fire?”
“That’s not a gun,” Stephen said. “It’s a camera.”
“A camera? Why are they using that here?”
“Probably because they’re insane.”
♦ ♦ ♦
Murder shone in Crag’s remaining eye, but he seemed unfocused, as if he were still dazed from the blast. Kisaki realized she needed to get to the Taiyosori before he cleared his head and...
And then what? She and Stephen continued to back away from the furious mazoku, but the truth was, she had no idea what to do once she retrieved the quill.
Everyone seemed to think it was an all-powerful weapon, but she hadn’t seen it do anything but turn into a feather and give out the occasional shock. It had stunned Shitoro when he’d touched it, but no more. What hope would it be against a monster like Crag?
“Get out of the way!”
The warning came from the police officers still on the rooftop of their building, again taking aim at the massive demon. However, the man with the camera and his female companion were too close, continuing on whatever mad quest possessed them.
“Run!” Kisaki screamed at them.
They only moved back once Crag got dangerously near, their only salvation being that the monster still appeared to be confused. He snarled at them as he passed, then charged the vehicle they’d come in.
With a roar of rage, he slammed into it, tipping it over onto its side. He drove his fists into it, denting the metal like it was paper, but then he abruptly stopped. He raised one hand to his injured head and gave it a shake.
When he looked up again, the grogginess was gone from his face. He turned, surveying the scene, and then saw Kisaki and her friend. “You!”
“Come with me!” Kisaki cried. She grabbed hold of Stephen’s arm and pulled him in the direction where the Taiyosori lay. Unfortunately, his foot caught on a broken piece of asphalt and he stumbled into her, knocking her off balance.
“Sorry,” he said, helping her back to her feet.
“Come on!”
He nodded. “Did you see what he did to that van?”
“Yes,” Kisaki replied. “It’s the same thing he will do to us if...” She trailed off. Crag was gone. He’d just been standing next to the van. But now, all she saw was the clearly insane human couple. The woman was speaking into a stubby black object while the man pointed the camera their way.
“Going somewhere?”
Kisaki spun to find Crag blocking her way again. For something so large, he moved disturbingly fast.
“I am going to enjoy killing you. I will rip your screaming head from your body and throw it down at your mother’s feet. She will know the pain of loss before I cut her down. Now where is...”
Unfortunately for them, Crag was seemingly not as stupid as Shitoro had made him out to be. He inclined his head, then turned to follow her gaze.
“Something of interest behind me, little hanyou? Something you lost in the storm, perhaps.” He smiled, showing cracked and bloodied teeth. “Maybe a friend of yours ... a certain tiger youkai who has been living on borrowed time for far too long? Or maybe a weapon.”
“It is not yours,” she warned.
“Oh? And you claim it? You, a hanyou, lowest of the low. Bastard child of two worlds, yet belonging to neither. I think not. It is time the Taiyosori was possessed by one both worthy of its power and not afraid to use it.”
He took a step back, the smile never leaving his ruined face.
Stephen grabbed her arm. “Kisaki, don’t. He’s goading you.”
She knew that but realized she needed to act. The sword rightfully belonged to her mother. She’d already dishonored herself enough during this foray, being stupid and selfish at almost every turn. She wouldn’t allow this beast to take what wasn’t his.
Besides, Stephen had proven that Crag could be hurt. And what could be hurt could be killed.
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
With a battle cry of her own, she pulled free from her friend’s grasp and charged. If she couldn’t use the weapon against him, then she would be the weapon herself.
Again, though, Crag proved himself to be more intelligent than she gave him credit for. Her attack was rushed, sloppy. His was measured, backhanding her away almost contemptuously.
Kisaki flew backwards and barreled into Stephen, sending them both down in a tangle of arms and legs.
“Ooh, that had to have hurt,” the man with the camera said from some distance away.
“Shut up and keep filming,” his companion ordered.
Kisaki paid them no mind. She rolled off Stephen and turned to check on him. “Are you okay?”
“Nothing a couple weeks in traction won’t fix,” he wheezed. “You’re heavier than you look.”
She reached down to help him up, but he waved her off. “Go!”
“But...”
“I’m okay. Just be more careful this time.”
She gave him a single nod, then turned to find Crag walking away from them, taking an almost leisurely pace toward where the Taiyosori still stood, sticking out of the ruined bench. He was almost there, just a few more steps.
Kisaki ran after him, moving quickly and with deliberation. She knew if she went high, he’d catch her again. She might be smaller and more agile, but he was far more seasoned than she. Injured or not, he had the advantage in raw power and durability. Truth be told, she had no real idea how to stop such a creature.
But maybe she didn’t need to stop him.
Perhaps slowing him down would be enough.
She went low, diving at Crag’s legs. Massive as he was, she was almost certain she’d bounce off, but she hit him solidly in the back of his knees and he tumbled forward.
There was no time for celebration, talking, or anything else. By the time he hit the ground, Kisaki was already back on her feet again. She raced past him, mindful of his long grasp.
She reached the Taiyosori and plucked it from its spot. Despite the wind, it was completely unruffled, in perfect condition, as if it hadn’t been touched at all.
“Please become a sword again!” she pleaded with it.
A shadow fell over her and she spun toward it, only to be grabbed around the neck by a massive hand. Her air was immediately cut off and she was lifted from the ground as if she weighed nothing, which was probably not far from the truth for the mazoku.
“I knew if I let you, you would lead me right to it,” Crag said with a laugh, spittle flying from his mouth. He glanced down at the quill in her hand. “I must admit, I would never have considered this. Quite the disguise. Tell me, how did you do it? A glamour perhaps? Some other hanyou trick, maybe?” He looked at Kisaki’s rapidly reddening face. “Oh, right. You can’t answer. That’s okay. There is really nothing left for you to say anyway.”
Kisaki tried to pry Crag’s fingers loose with her free hand, but it was a losing battle. His strength was immense and she had little leverage dangling in midair as she was.
She thought she felt the Taiyosori throb hotly in her hand but realized she was probably imagining it. She was rapidly beginning to feel dizzy from the lack of air, and Crag didn’t appear to be in the mood to let up anytime soon.
He drew her close, blowing his rancid breath in her face. “And now, I think I shall claim my prize, insignificant as it might appear.”
He reached up to pluck the Taiyosori from her grasp.
♦ ♦ ♦
The enchantments placed upon the great blade of heaven were many, but among them were three tenants which determined who the weapon would judge worthy to wield it.
The sword could be gifted from one rightful owner to another, assuming no trickery or deceit was used. Unbeknownst to most, the weapon possessed a rudimentary consciousness about it and could sense such duplicity.
It could be inherited. A rightful heir could attempt to lay claim to the weapon. If judged worthy, they would then become its rightful master. The blade could be a fickle thing if it so chose, however, and sometimes that judgment took time.
Finally, the sword could be won in fair combat. A worthy adversary, one who laid the sword’s current owner low, could lay claim to it upon the owner’s defeat. A duel of honor would satisfy these demands, if indeed the blade sensed such. However, most often, it was upon the previous owner’s death.
If any other method were used to claim the blade, it would reject its would-be master, using force commensurate with the thief’s power to dissuade them.
Such was Crag’s folly. Had he kept his grip upon Kisaki for a few minutes longer, enough to assure her life force was snuffed out, then perhaps the fate of the heavens would have changed. Perhaps he would have laid claim to the blade and used it to set the celestial palace ablaze, proclaiming himself a god in the process.
But in his shortsighted greed, the mazoku warlord placed his hands upon the weapon while Kisaki was still conscious.
In short, he tried to steal it from her.
♦ ♦ ♦
Crag’s hand closed upon the blade turned quill.
Kisaki expected it to be plucked from her grasp with the barest of effort, but instead, the look of triumph on Crag’s face turned to one of shock and then pain.
Glancing over as best she could, Kisaki saw the quill glowing, first red, then blue. She wasn’t sure what it meant, but then Crag’s hand, still grasping the top of the feather, burst aflame.
The fire, blue hot, traveled up his arm, igniting the fur as it went and leaving behind an acrid smell that burned Kisaki’s nostrils.
Hold on, I can breathe!
Crag’s grip upon her loosened as he screamed in pain, either unwilling to or, as seemed to be the case, unable to let go of the Taiyosori.
Finally, he dropped her. She fell to the ground, the quill pulled from his grasp by her weight. He beat at the flames with his uninjured hand, but the damage had been done. His right arm had been reduced to a charred mass of burnt flesh.
Crag reared back and screamed to the sky, the sound echoing around them, audible for perhaps miles. Kisaki coughed, trying to catch her breath. With every battle she’d fought, her body had proven far stronger than she’d imagined. Thankfully, it was more durable, too. Despite some lingering pain, she seemed to be otherwise okay.
However, she realized that might not be the case for long.
Crag looked down upon her, misery etched upon his face, which then gave way to pure unadulterated anger. “You! Do you see what you have done to me?!”
All at once, the doubt Kisaki had felt vanished. She hadn’t known what to do with the Taiyosori once she retrieved it. If anything, she’d feared it might be useless to her. But she saw now that it wasn’t. It was indeed filled with power and, if so, that meant she could use it.
“I do see now,” Kisaki replied. She kicked out, catching Crag in the ankle with a forceful blow, strong enough to knock his leg out from under him and drive him to one knee before her. “But you do not.”
With one fluid motion, she drove the tip of the quill through Crag’s remaining eye, blinding him.
The demon screamed out and reached up to claw at his face, but Kisaki quickly backed up, still holding the now bloody quill.
Crag began to beat at the ground around him. “I will kill you! I will find you and your friends and I will kill you all!”
“No,” Kisaki said, that cold logic seemingly filling all of the voids within her. “You will never kill another again. I will see to it.”
The quill trembled in her grasp at her words. It heated up again, but not painfully so. Instead, it was a comfortable warmth, as if it were a living thing. It began to glow, growing brighter until it again reminded Kisaki of a supernova. She looked away but could still feel it in her hand, except now it was different. Gone was the softness of the feathered quill and in its place was a solid grip as if she were holding...
The light died down and Kisaki saw it was true. The Taiyosori was once again a gleaming translucent blade filled with an ocean of stars, but she knew now it wasn’t glass. It was more, so much more.
But none of that would matter if Crag had his say. Blinded as he was, he’d heard her. He stumbled her way, reaching down to batter the ground as he went, no doubt hoping to crush her with a lucky blow.
She grasped the grip of the sword with both hands and waited for the right moment.
Crag’s titanic fist momentarily blotted out the sun as he raised it above her and brought it down where she stood.
At the last possible second she sidestepped, and he again tore a gouge out of the concrete of the sidewalk, but it brought the rest of him level with her height.
Now!
Kisaki swung with all she had, expecting to meet resistance from the mazoku’s massively muscled form, but the blade sliced through his neck as easily as if cutting through rice paper. Crag’s head, a look of surprise upon its face, tumbled away from his body and came to rest several feet away as the rest of him crashed to the ground.
The hunter, so long the scourge of any who stood in his way, had been felled.